Snow brakes are used for preventing large sheets of ice or snow from sliding and falling from roofs, harming persons standing nearby or striking objects below such as shrubberies, cars or property located about the roof drip line of a building.
Typically, snow and ice accumulates on a roof until it melts or its weight causes it to fall. The snow may melt from above by warmth from the sun, or from below by warmth from the roof. Water flows through the snow and runs along the roof and drips off edges of the roof. Such water frequently causes loss of adhesion between the remaining snow and ice and the roof.
Particularly on standing seam metal roofs, or any metal roof with raised seams, the water makes the roof surface slick, causing heavy sheets of snow or ice to slide along the roof. Snow brakes are used so that the snow bank or ice sheets formed on the roof are retained until they melt or slide off the roof in small pieces. Snow brakes have been designed for attaching to the flat surface of the roof, and some snow brakes have been designed for attaching to the roof seams. Many of the snow brakes designs found in the prior art are fashioned to affix to such seams by attachment means which either puncture or deform the roofing material substantially in the operation of the device. Other snow brake devices found in the prior art are of designs which require multiple parts to function.
Multi-part snow brakes are expensive. Snow brakes which attach to the flat surface of the roof make holes through the roof and promote water entry and destruction of the roof and its supporting surface. Snow guards which use adhesives to mount to the roof can work loose from exposure to the elements, discolor the roofing materials and are not generally preferred. Snow brakes which attach to the seams of roofs can penetrate the seams or tend to deform the seams unnecessarily for locking the snow brakes on the roof. Examples of such snow brakes can be found in prior art which provides for recesses or detents in the construction of the snow brake, which are designed to accept the deformed seam.
A need exists for snow brakes which may be easily and inexpensively constructed, and which provide adequate support for snow and adequate locking to formed seams without utilizing substantial deformation of the seams as the primary anchoring point for retention of the snow brake.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,340 issued Feb. 1, 1994 to Cline et al. illustrates the problem with the prior art. Cline et al. suggest the use of a set screw which attaches the snow brake to a roof seam and holds it in place by deforming the opposite of the vertical portion of the roof""s seam and pressing the displaced seam into a depression or dimple in the snow brake base on the opposite side of the set screw. Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,513 issued to Williams on Mar. 31, 1998 continue to show deformation of a roof seam by set screws as a primary affixing means of a snow brake. In Williams, the deformation of the seam is necessary by the application of set screw pressure on both sides of a seam thereby creating opposing depressions or displacements of the roof seam sufficient to effectively hold the roof brake to a seam by causing a counter displacement immediately adjacent to a first displacement of the seam by one set screw. In effect, Williams creates opposing recesses of a roof seam by displacing the seam in the opposite direction immediately adjacent to a first displacement by a first set screw.
Such issued patents, as well as prior art patents which teach attachment means for snow brakes on existing fabricated metal roof seams do not teach the firm attachment of snow brake devices by primarily utilizing the geometry of the existing fabricated metal roof seam, whether the seam be a standing seam or a snap on seam as more fully described in the present disclosure.
The present invention provides a light weight, easily attachable, and one piece snow brake for attachment to both standing seams and snap on seams commonly used in fabricated metal roofs. The present invention uses an improved attachment means, transversely oriented to the roof seams used at the attachment point of metal roofs which are comprised of generally rectangular pieces. The described snow brake attaches through its mounting base by interlocking with the existing seam to hook the snow brake into either a standing seam or a snap on seam utilizing one or more bolts, set screws or a combination of set screws and asymmetrical base receiving structures. The present invention relies on a set screw affixed through the base of the snow brake in one embodiment, or mild deformation of the roof seam in the same embodiment depending on the side of the roof seam utilized. A reversible design, the disclose snow stop can be used either by intercepting the locking nub found on snap on seams, or hooking under the roll portion of the standing seam as more fully described in the following disclosure. The disclosed snow brake provides an improvement to the state of the art by not requiring opposing indentations, recesses or openings within the internal area of the snow brake which would receive any seam engaging fastener such a set screw.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide a snow brake which has a simplified method of attachment of the brake to a seam in a metal roof which utilizes a folded seam or existing radius pre-formed in the seam for attachment.
It is further the object of the invention to provide a snow guard in which the attachment does not rely on a depression or a recess in the snow guard base which is used to compliment the depression formed by the snow guard attachment means in the seam being displaced by the attachment means.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide a roof snow guard which is symmetrical in design such as to allow the guard to be useable and functional when rotated 180 degrees on its longitudinal axis. In furtherance of such object, the disclosed snow guard provides a 90 degree angle from the base of the snow guard to the snow plate of the snow guard thereby allowing the rotation of the snow guard to match a given roof seam alignment whether the seam is to the left or right of the seam.
The novel features that are considered characteristic of the invention are set forth below in the disclosure, and with particularity in the claims appended hereto. The invention itself, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the description of specific embodiments which follows when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like numbers refer to like parts. These, and many other objects will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art of making snow brakes, upon reading the following detailed descriptions which disclose specific embodiments which best present the invention.